Big komoku
Have you heard? Sugiuchi Kazuko actually won a game. To remind, she’s 96 years old, born March 6, 1927 (became pro in 1942). Not that opponent was amazingly young at 50 years old.
Meanwhile on the younger side Ueno Risa (16yo) challenged Nakamura Sumire (she’s now 14yo, birthday is 2nd March).
And on the stronger side Ueno Asami played Iyama Yuta. Iyama Yuta doesn’t seem to be giving out wins for nothing.
https://www.seattlego.org/2023/07/04/sgc-temporarily-closed/
SGC must close until it finds a temporary location to rent. Our landlord says they are defaulting on their loan, and we need to leave the premises by 27 JUL. SGC will operate normally through 18 JUL in its current location. We hope to find a new temporary location soon and resume normal programs. Until we rent a temporary location for SGC, we are looking for a location to host Tue evenings, for example, a restaurant or coffee shop that is closed on Tue. Please email manager@seattlego.org with any suggestions or questions.
This news article has more details:
The closure comes after Champion Real Estate Company purchased the building from the Nihon Ki-in, the former Japanese owners of the Go Center, last June for $7.3 million. An August 2020 design proposal shows plans to construct “Victory at the U,” a high-rise student housing building, on the lot. The proposal would allow the Go Center to occupy the second level of the building.
“The original intent for the site included a new building with a space for which the Go Center would occupy under a 99-year lease,” said Garrett Champion, executive vice president of Champion Real Estate Co. “However, due to market conditions we are reevaluating the use of the site.”
AKA “We promised the building would still be used for Go when we bought it but now that it’s ours we decided we want to milk it for as much money as possible”
It sounds unfair for go players, and it is indeed sad, however if the following is true
then perhaps it’s not about “milking for as much money as possible” but “avoid bankruptcy”.
AKA “We’re too greedy to just make a decent profit, we’re terminally conditioned to chase all profit”.
I dunno if there is 1 go building still not sold.
Makes me pretty sad, that is so against the dreams and contribution of Iwamoto Kaoru.
The MDR (one of the 6 or so local German TV stations) published a piece about the EGC. It’s short, but it’s something.
Is it greedy for a random bank to not go out of their way to support a random Go club it has no connection to?
It sounds like Nihon Ki-in sold the building with the restriction that SGC could keep using it, but they failed to impose the restriction on the mortgage holder. So when the purchaser decided to dump the property, SGC was out of luck. Probably there’s more to the story, but it seems like a strange oversight to make if they actually cared.
Nihon-kiin had a serious financial problem at its branch in São Paulo, Brazil.
No, but it is greedy of banks and other financial institutions to habitually hide behind “market conditions” to be the greediest they can possibly be.
And, “market conditions” always apply to the banks and never to their customers, funny that.
Fun fact, kinda related: I don’t know if y’all remember the train disaster a few months ago in Greece. A law passed that victims of the tragedy and their families would have loans forgiven. Some funds, that hide behind bank laws applying to them when it suits them, came out and said “technically, we’re not banks, so the law doesn’t apply to us, pay up!”.